Poultry Farmers in Ghana not happy with Agric Minister for being neglected

The Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers (GNAPF) has described minister for Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto as an arrogant minister who is impervious to advise from the association about the well-being of their jobs and that of the ministry he heads.

“Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto is an arrogant minister who does not listen to advice from us concerning the welfare of the ministry and our jobs”, Former National Chairman of the association, Mr Kwadwo Asante described him in an interview on Kumasi-based Oyerepa Fm ’s morning show hosted by Nana Kwadwo Jantuah and monitored by Mynewsgh.com.

According to him, there are some rather unpleasant situations in the country emanating from the Agric ministry which could have been avoided if the minister had given those challenges the needed attention.

“There is nothing Dr. Akoto and his deputy Nurudeen would listen when you inform them”, Mr. Asare said adding that the minister always argues unnecessarily without considering issues at hand.

“Most of their utterances are lies. They are not truthful because they have had lots of discussions with us and they lied. He gets annoyed even when you discuss important concerns with him (Akoto),” He fumed.

“Even when they book an appointment with you, you will never find them around”. He added explaining that the Minister and his team could not fight the fall armyworm because they did not effectively implement plans laid down to combat the pest.

He also mentioned a problem poultry farmers encountered last year concerning an agro company which bred chicken for them but unfortunately, most of them lost their business because the chickens did not survive.

According to him, the association petitioned the ministry in the year 2017 on the incident but “till date no response has been made by the minister despite scheduling a meeting with them but never turned up till date.

“Over 100 poultry farmers across the country were affected. At least, each farmer lost close to 30,000 or 40,000 chickens at the time”, he added

On the other hand, however, Mr. Asante applauded Mr. George Oduro Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture for being a thoughtful man who always shows concerns about issues of national interest, unlike his colleagues.